Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 5.3 “Prison Riot”

Posted on March 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC! It can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, we have one of Homicide’s best episodes.

Episode 5.3 “Prison Riot”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on October 18th, 1996)

At the Maryland State Prison, convicted murderer Claude Vetter (Mark Rogers) accidentally bumps into another murderer, James Douglas (Tim McAdams), in the cafeteria. James pulls a knife and stabs Vetter in the stomach. As Vetter collapses, a riot breaks out. By the time the guards have forcefully restored order, Vetter and James Douglas are dead. Everyone knows who killed Vetter. But who stabbed James in the back?

Lewis, Munch, Howard, Bayliss, Kellerman and Giardello head down to the scene. (Pembleton, who is still struggling with his up-coming shooting test, is left behind.) Munch and Lewis don’t care about solving Douglas’s murder. As far as they’re concerned, both Claude Vetter and James Douglas got what they deserved. Munch gets annoyed and returns to the station. Lewis sticks around to help Bayliss with a few interrogations before he also leaves. Bayliss, however, is determined to solve the murder of James Douglas and Kellerman, looking to make up all the ill will that has existed between him and Bayliss, does his best to help.

Bayliss is convinced that Elijah Sanborn (Charles S. Dutton) saw who killed James. Sanborn is serving a life sentence for shooting a drug dealer who previously shot and killed Elijah’s wife in drive-by. (Elijah’s wife was an innocent bystander.) Elijah has been in prison for 14 years. He’s never getting out and he sees no reason why he should help the police. However, when Elijah’s 14 year-old son is arrested for a petty theft, Bayliss offers a deal. If Elijah tells Bayliss who killed James Douglas, Elijah’s son will only do 6 months at a juvenile facility. If Elijah refuses to talk, his son will be charged as an adult.

Elijah is outraged that Bayliss would “use my own son against me!” It’s only after his estranged daughter (Heather Alicia Simms, giving a wonderful performance) visits that Elijah agrees to share what he knows. He has one condition. He wants to see his son. When Elijah’s son turns out to be a sullen and uncommunicative wannabe gangster who tells his father that he doesn’t care about him, Elijah announces, “I killed James Douglas.”

Bayliss knows that Elijah is lying but he also knows that Elijah’s confession is enough to send him to the gas chamber. With no prospects of ever walking free and having been rejected by both his daughter and his son, Elijah has decided to use the system to kill himself.

Fortunately — or unfortunately, depending on how you look at things, another prisoner, Tom Marans (Dean Winters), beats Trevor Douglas (John Epps) into a coma. Trevor was James’s cousin and Marans reveals that Trevor is also the one who killed James because he thought James had stolen a carton of cigarettes from him. Marans explains that he was James’s “wife” in prison.

As the episode ends, Giardello congratulates Bayliss before adding that it’ll only be a matter of time before Trevor’s people seek revenge and they all have to return to the prison to investigate the murder of Tom Marans.

This was a great episode. After spending the past few seasons as Pembleton’s sidekick, Bayliss finally got a chance to step up and show off his own abilities as a homicide detective. Kellerman assisting him turned out to be an inspired move, as it allowed Kellerman to finally be something more than just a kind of goofy frat boy detective. Working together, Kyle Secor and Reed Diamond had great comedic timing, which kept this rather grim episode from getting too dark. (Kellerman: “Do you want a hug?” Bayliss: “Do you and Lewis often hug?”)

One thing that made this episode interesting was that the victims, the suspects, and most of the witnesses were all murderers who were previously arrested on this show. It was interesting to see how prison had changed or, in some cases, not changed them. The once preppy Tom Marans now had bright yellow hair, scarred knuckles, and some really nasty facial sores. Meanwhile, James and Trevor Douglas were still the same punks that they were on the outside, when they used to film themselves committing murder.

Finally, what made this episode truly powerful was the performance of Charles S. Dutton. A Baltimore native who served time in prison before becoming an acclaimed stage actor, Dutton has not always been served well by television and the movies. He’s very much a theatrical actor and, when cast in the wrong role, he can come across as being a bit over-the-top. In this episode, though, Dutton is perfectly cast and he gives a truly moving performance of as an inherently decent man who does what he has to do in order to survive as a prisoner in a system that has been constructed specifically to break and destroy him. Elijah’s fury feels earned and deserved but, in the end, he’s ultimately just a father who wants things to be better for his son and his daughter. When Elijah’s son rejected him, it was one of Homicide’s most heart-breaking moments.

Prison Riot has a reputation for being one of Homicide’s best episodes. The reputation is very much deserved.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.12 “Partners”

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the bar finally opens!

Episode 3.12 “Partners”

(Dir by John McNaughton, Originally aired January 20th, 1995)

As you can tell by the title, this episode was all about partners.

For instance, Megan Russert realized that her former partner from narcotics, Douglas Jones (Robert Clohessy, with his Bronx accent), has been beating up his wife, Natalie (Lily Knight). He regularly puts her in the hospital, though Natalie always insists that she either fell down the stairs or walked into a door. Jones, who is now working homicide during the night shift and under Russert’s command, insists that he would never hurt his wife. When Russert asks Jones’s former boss if Jones had been having any trouble while working narcotics, he refuses to give her specifics. It’s a boys club and the boys protect each other. Eventually, Natalie ends up shooting Jones with his own gun, probably killing him. (We’re told that he’s barely holding on.) This storyline was well-acted and well-written but watching it, I was reminded of just how awkwardly this show tends to use Russert. Because she commands a different shift, she doesn’t really get much interaction with the other main characters. Her affair with Beau Felton has never really made sense. From what I understand, Russert was created by NBC demanded more personal drama and some glamour. Isabella Hofman does about as good a job as anyone could with her often underwritten character but there’s really just not much for her to do.

Meanwhile, with Pembleton under suspension and threatening to quit, Bayliss doesn’t have a regular partner. His attempt to partner up with Lewis ends in disaster when Lewis’s bad (albeit hilarious) driving leads to Bayliss getting a minor concussion. Fortunately, Pembleton does return to the Homicide Department, though not before nearly burning down his kitchen while trying to make dinner. Unfortunately, before Pembleton can return to his job, he has to take the fall for offering to drop the investigation into Congressman Wade’s false kidnapping report. Andre Braugher perfectly plays the scene in which Pambleton testifies in court. It’s easy to see the emotional and mental pain that Pembleton feels as he essentially commits perjury, taking the blame and letting Commissioner Harris of the hook. Pembleton is forced to compromise and it eats away at his soul. At the same time, he also gets to return to doing what he does best. Early on in the episode, Giardello acknowledges that he and Pembleton are not friends. “I’ve never been to your house, I’ve never met you’re wife …. I am not your friend ….” but Giardello explains that Pembleton is a good detective. He turns “red names black” and that’s why he wants and needs Pembleton to return.

Bayliss, Lewis, and Munch finally open their bar and, at the end of the episode, it looks like the entire city of Baltimore has turned out. Bolander even looks like he’s having a good time! Munch raises a glass in a toast to the best partners that anyone could hope for and I got tears in mismatched eyes. Seriously, I was so happy to finally see that bar open! It was also nice to see everyone else happy for once. That doesn’t often happen on Homicide.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.10 “Every Mother’s Son”

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, life and death both continue in Baltimore.

Episode 3.10 “Every Mother’s Son”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on January 6th, 1995)

Let’s get the least important part of this week’s episode out of the way first. Felton is still looking for his wife and kids. He abandons Kay while she’s in the middle of a homicide investigation. When Kay calls him out on it, Felton brings up the fact that she went on vacation for a weekend. The difference is that Felton isn’t taking vacation days. Instead, he’s just leaving in the middle of work and expecting Kay to handle all of his cases.

BEAU FELTON — WORST HOMICIDE DETECTIVE EVER!

Meanwhile, Lewis and Munch discover that their bar is a historical landmark because George Washington once stopped there to use the restroom. The bar stuff, while not really related to the episode’s main drama, didn’t feel as unnecessary as the stuff with Felton’s family. A lot of that is because Lewis, Munch, and Bayliss are a lot more sympathetic than Felton. This week’s scenes with Howie Mandel as an interior decorator felt a bit off for an episode of Homicide but they still amused me. That said, at some point, these three really are going to have to get it together and open the place.

As for the main storyline, it featured Pembleton and Bayliss investigating the shooting of a 13 year-old in a bowling alley. It’s a familiar story, one that this show has used before. The fact that we’ve seen it before is not a reflection on the show. It’s reflection of the reality of life on the streets. The murderer was another kid, one who was now facing life in prison if he ended up getting charged as an adult. The murderer showed little remorse, telling Pembleton that he would rather be in jail than the on the streets. What made this episode stand out was a scene between two mothers — one the mother of the victim and the other the mother of the shooter — meeting by chance in a police station and striking up a conversation despite not knowing who the other was. Gay Thomas Wilson and Rhonda Stubbins White both gave excellent and poignant performances of two women who, by the end of the show, would have both ended up losing their oldest son.

This was a simple but effective episode, a moody look at the ironies of death and violence in Baltimore. George Washington once stopped by the Waterfront Bar but that doesn’t mean anything to the people who are dying and suffering in the city. In the end, Pembleton could only look on in silene as the shooter announced that he was happy to be in jail. “You’re probably going to die in a cell just like this,” Pembleton says.

“Better here than on the streets,” is the reply.

And nothing more is left to be said.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Just The Ticket (dir by Richard Wenk)

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Hi there! So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR. Seriously, I currently have 193 things recorded! I’ve decided that, on January 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not. So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR! Will I make it? Keep checking this site to find out! I recorded the 1999 romantic comedy Just The Ticket off of Epix on October 13th!)

Just The Ticket tells the story of Gary Starke (Andy Garcia).

Gary lives in New York City. He is a tough, streetwise character, loyal to his friends and quick to anger if he feels that anyone is trying to take advantage of him. He has no time for pretentious posturing or snobbish social gatherings. Gary’s a man of the people. He works with and takes care of an aging former boxer named Benny (Richard Bradford). He looks after a pregnant, former drug addict named Alice (Laura Harris). When the slick and dangerous Casino (Andre B. Blake) starts to do business in Gary’s territory, Gary is the only person with the guts to stand up to him. Having never had a family (he’s never even seen his birth certificate and has no idea who his parents were), Gary has adopted the street people as his surrogate family.

That’s not all. Gary is also a lapsed Catholic who, when he goes to confession, opens by saying that it’s been 25 years since his last confession and that he’s taken the Lord’s name in vain 20 to 30 times that morning. Gary needs some help because his girlfriend, an aspiring chef named Linda (Andie McDowell), has left him and Gary wants to win her back. The priest asks Gary if he can get him tickets to see the Knicks…

Why does he ask that?

You see, Gary is a legendary ticket scalper and…

Okay, I probably just lost you when I used the terms “legendary” and “ticket scalper” in the same sentence. And I’ll admit that, when I discovered this movie was about ticket scalpers, it nearly lost me as well. Just The Ticket treats ticket scalping with a dignity and reverence that I’m not quite sure it deserves. I wasn’t surprised to discover that director/writer Richard Wenk apparently based the character of Gary on an actual ticket scalper that he knew. A lot of bad movies have been made as the result of a director, writer, or producer coming across some mundane activity and thinking, “Wow, this would make a great movie!”

(That’s one reason why, every few years, we suddenly get a dozen movies about race car drivers.)

However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Just The Ticket is not a terrible movie. Admittedly, it’s totally predictable and there are a lot of scenes that don’t work. For instance, there’s a lengthy scene where Gary and Linda destroy a snobbish food critic’s kitchen. I could imagine Gary doing that because he has nothing to lose. But Linda is actually hoping to become a chef in New York City. Would she really run the risk of making a permanent enemy at the New York Times? There’s nothing about Andie McDowell’s performance that suggests she would. The scenes between Gary and his aging partner also tend to overplay their hand. Richard Bradford gives a good performance as Benny but we all know what’s going to end up happening to him as soon as he starts crying after Gary insults him.

With all that in mind, Just The Ticket still has an undeniable charm. Some of it is due to Andy Garcia’s dedicated performance. He is frequently better than the material and he and Andie McDowell have enough chemistry that you do want to see Linda and Gary get back together. Some of it is because Just The Ticket is not afraid to shy away from being sentimental. It’s hard to think of any other romantic comedy in which the Pope plays such an important supporting role. It’s a sweet movie. It has a good heart.

There’s something to be said for that.